My research focuses on 1) use of stem cells to understand mechanisms of neurological development and disease in normal and mutant mice, with the long term goal of improving therapy of human neurological diseases, 2) development of three-dimensional high resolution MRI and histological atlases of the brain for research and teaching goals. Recent work has been concentrated on neuronal degenerative diseases, especially those affecting the cerebellum, on genetic forms of brain tumors, and on pathophysiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Cameron, J., Alexopoulou, L., Sloane, J., DiBernardo, A., Ma, Y., Kosaras, B., Flavell, R., Strittmatter, S., Volpe, J.J., Sidman, R., and Vartanian, T.: Toll-like receptor 3 is a potent negative regulator of axonal growth in mammals. J. Neurosci., 27:13033-13041, 2007.
Ma, Y., Haynes, R.L., Sidman, R.L., and Vartanian, T.: TLR8: an innate immune receptor in brain, neurons and axons. Cell Cycle, 23:2859-2868, 2007.
Teng, Y.D., Santos, F.N.C., Black, P.M., Konya, D., Park, K.I., Sidman, R.L. and Snyder, E.Y.: Neural stem cells. In: Principles of Regenerative Medicine, 3rd edition. (Atala, A, Lanza, R., Thomson, J.A., and Nerem, R.M., Eds.) San Diego, Elsevier, Inc., pp. 300-317, 2008.
Ozawa, M.G., Zurita, A.J., Dias-Neto, E., Nunes, D.N., Sidman, R.L., Gelovani, J.G., Arap, W., and Pasqualini, R.: Beyond receptor expression levels: the relevance of target accessibility in ligand-directed pharmacodelivery systems. Trends Cardiovasc. Med., 18:126-132, 2008.
Sidman, R.L., Taksir, T., Fidler, J., Zhao, M., Dodge, J.C., Passini, M.A., Raben, N., Thurberg, B.L., Cheng, S.H., and Shihabuddin, L.S.: Temporal neuropathological and behavioral phenotype of 6neo/6neo Pompe disease mice. J. Neuropath. Exp. Neurol., 67:803-818, 2008.
External Recognition:
Soma Weiss Student Research Prizes, Boylston Society Prize Essay, Harvard Medical School, 1951-53
1st Richard Stearns Memorial Lecturer, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1958
Fellow, Neurosciences Research Program, 1971-1979
Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board & Board of Directors, Paraplegia Res. Found. - Paracure, Inc., 1972-1980
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1973-
Member, National Academy of Sciences, 1979-
Scientific Advisory Board, Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation, 1979�1989
Vice President, Association for Research in Nervous & Mental Disease, 1980
Board of Scientific Overseers, The Jackson Laboratory, 1981-1992
Biomedical Research Committee, The Medical Foundation, Boston 1988-2006
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowships in Biological Sciences Evaluation Panel, 1995-2001, Chairman, Neuroscience and Physiology 2, 1999-2001
NIH, Molecular, Developmental and Cellular Neuroscience MDCN-K(51) Study Section, 2004-
NAAR-Autism Speaks Scientific Review Committee, 2006-
Major Collaborative Activities:
Research collaboration with Dr. T. Vartanian on toll-like receptor function in the nervous system (e.g., see above publication by Cameron et al., 2007 and Ma et al., 2007).
